Woman denied transfusion at Boston hospital due to blood shortage: "We all need to be concerned"
The numbers behind the nationwide blood shortage have become painfully personal for a New Hampshire woman. Colleen O'Neill says she was told she needed a transfusion, only to learn there wasn't enough blood. She hopes to get the word out to help others.
For O'Neill, something as simple as walking can take everything she has. The 62-year-old has anemia so severe she's been hospitalized before and relies on a wheelchair to get around.
"You literally can't function, there's so much exhaustion," said O'Neill. "I don't even drive when my numbers are down this low because I don't want to put someone else's family at risk on the road because you literally can pass out with seconds' notice."
Blood transfusions have become her lifeline, but right now, a blood shortage is straining supply across Massachusetts and the country.
"They can be the one in the next accident that can't get blood or someone in their family and so we all need to be concerned about this," said O'Neill.
O'Neill said at a recent Mass General Hospital appointment, she was preparing for a blood transfusion, even signing the paperwork, but hours later, she says the order was pulled.
"I went into the hospital, and they told me I needed a transfusion and then an hour later they came back and said we can't give it to you, even though you need it and I didn't know there was a shortage," said O'Neill. "They said that they needed to reserve the stock that they had for like life flights and accidents where people are bleeding to death literally."
That reality is happening as the Red Cross declared an emergency blood shortage just weeks ago, saying donations had fallen to a four-year low.
Universal "Type O" blood is especially scarce. The Red Cross recently told WBZ that a sharp summer drop in donations combined with high hospital demand is contributing to the shortage.
"The problem is the blood that's already on the shelves is what helps in an emergency, so if a hospital all of a sudden has a mass trauma event, and they need multiple units of blood for many, many patients coming in, there's not going to be time to go out, collect more, bring it into the hospital, and get that into patients," said Kelly Isenor with the Red Cross. "It's what they have in their supply. That's why we talk about the supply being at such a critical level."
That's why O'Neill wants people to see the toll this shortage is taking. To help boost a resource any one of us could need without warning.
"At some point it becomes dangerous," said O'Neill. "We're all in the same boat of waiting for people to be kind and generous and concerned enough to call the Red Cross and make a donation."
O'Neill says she's still waiting to find out when she can get her transfusion. WBZ reached out to Mass General Hospital and was still waiting to hear back.
